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Mixture of converts to other faiths, nominal Catholics not attending services, and the overall decline of religiosity in modern times.

I know I was partially raised in the Catholic church as a kid, my parents did it out of obligation to my grandparents. However, after going through catechism and receiving my communion(around 13 years old), I abruptly confessed to the priest and my parents that I have never actually believed in any of the teachings. Unlike the other people, I've never felt any presence of holiness or divine feelings when in the church or when reading the passages. That was the end of my Catholic life lol, I did try to dive into other faiths out of curiosity, nothing really grabbed my attention.

For a little while I thought I found another religion which I held dear(Orthodox Christian), in reality that was just my teenage hormones rationalizing to get closer to my Orthodox ex girlfriend .

I still attend mass for special occasions such as weddings, funerals, and baptisms, but it's more a family event as opposed to actual devotion. The only people who I still claim Catholic to are my grandparents and one of my godmothers, since it would break their hearts otherwise.

"Living or dying, it's not a big deal. What we should be concerned about is whether or not we're allowed to crawl to our graves."

Just a little Catholic uncontested claim, the core argument for Catholicism - Peter promoted Christianity in Rome, he died there, but there's no convincing evidence, in my opinion, that he started the current Catholic church specifically. It was just claimed by Pope Gelasius, how does that make it a fact?

That said, I view Catholicism as the core WESTERN Christianity since all Christianity in Western Europe originates from Catholicism. I believe this is one of the more fundamental difference between Europe and the US, the kind of prevalent Christian ideologies in the US.

Catholics assert that their church is the true church Jesus Christ himself founded as per Matt. 16:11. Protestants say that there is nothing in the scriptures to suggest that Peter ever considered himself a Pope. The Catholics counter this by responding that the papacy was not yet established by then.

Historically I believe it was Clement of Rome who in his letter that he sent to the church in Corinth settled a dispute that the papacy was legit and appointed by the apostles.

Originally Posted by A Finn with experience of anthropology forums

Is that true? I have similar dreams, though about eugenics... I see images and craniums in front of me in the dreams. Words like sterilization, Germanics and others fly around as fragments in my head... scary stuff that I often dream about.

Then I go up, and look at myself in profile and from the front and in all angles, in all my mirrors that I have mounted up everywhere, and realise my Mongolian heritage and how the Swedes view me. Sometimes I cannot see the difference between myself and a Mongol, if the environment is cloudy.